Just for Kicks
by Boshoku
Summary: One school year. Six soccer teams. And one chance to be the successor to Japan’s national team. However, not everyone will play clean for a chance of a lifetime. Winning it all is one thing – surviving long enough to do so, is another. AU Narusasu :WIP:
1. Just a Pretty Face

**Disclaimer:** Sasuke still isn't home. So I don't own _Naruto. _

* * *

**Just for Kicks**

**By: Boshoku**

* * *

**Summary:** One school year. Six soccer teams. And one chance to be the successor to Japan's national soccer team. However, not everyone will play clean for a chance of a lifetime. Winning it all is one thing – surviving long enough to do so, is another. _Narusasu_

* * *

**Chapter One: Just a Pretty Face**

Yawning, Uzumaki Naruto struggled to stay awake as the daily announcements were made over the PA system. Ocean blue eyes disappeared beneath tanned eyelids, reappeared like a sliver of sun during the final moments of daytime, before finally vanishing. The 15 year-old nodded off onto his desk. Their teacher, Ebisu, was oblivious to this, as he furiously organized his lesson plans. However, someone was paying attention to Naruto's actions.

Sea green eyes flashing, Haruno Sakura scowled at the sleeping boy in front of her before leaning forward and firmly whipping her lead pencil across the back of his head. Yamanaka Ino snickered from next to her, blond hair bouncing.

"Naruto, you _baka!_ _Pay attention!_ Don't you know what day it is?" she hissed, infuriated. "Don't you _dare_ get detention today, or there'll be hell to pay!" She cracked her knuckles for emphasis. Across the room, Nara Shikamaru lazily lifted an eyelid to observe the pair, before dozing off once more.

Yelping, Naruto jerked awake, unfortunately drawing the attention of a certain teacher. Hastily straightening the skirt of her own red and black uniform, Sakura sat back down as black shades scanned the room for the source of the disturbance.

Biting back a string of curses, Naruto quickly dropped his hand from where it had been rubbing the back of his head, trying to remain as nonchalant as possible as the morning announcements droned on in the background. Sakura was right. He couldn't afford to get in trouble today, of all times, and his troublemaker reputation wouldn't help any if he was caught for even a minor incident.

Today was May 16th. A little over a month had passed from the beginning of the new school year. Opening ceremonies had been finished; the yearly outing for students to get to know each other was done ages ago, as well as a week long break, not to mention the end of midterms. Sports were starting up again – the Judo Club, the basketball team, Kendo club, and Karate Club, as well as various others. However, Naruto had the prestige and honor of being the captain of one of the most renowned secondary school teams in Japan – the captain of Konoha Secondary School soccer team. Naruto smiled slightly at the thought, gazing out the window at the green field as his thoughts wandered.

There were nine others on his team. Originally there had been ten, as of last year's count, but thought of that teammate was quickly pushed away whenever he came to mind. They trusted him, or at least Naruto did, and he betrayed them. So now, they were short a player. Today, the team was holding tryouts for a new team member, as wary as some of them were of letting someone new onto the team. Pulling that off without a captain wasn't going to be easy, however, and Naruto knew he couldn't afford to miss it.

Sakura, Ino, and Shikamaru were three of the people on his team. The others had different classes for their first of the day, as well as being in different grades. Despite their appearances, they all had more than proven themselves on and off the field as worthy of being on the team. More than just being a team, they considered each other family, which was extremely comforting in certain situations.

Of course, being each other's surrogate family, that of course meant the sibling rivalries and quarrels, which could get far enough out of hand that somebody ended up in the infirmary from a soccer ball to the head. Rarely did it get that bad, however. They balanced each other, which kept them together. Introducing someone new into the fold had never been easy – in fact, they had mostly ended disastrously.

Naruto could only hope that things wouldn't go so badly this year. Hearing the click of the classroom door shutting, he quickly turned his attention back to the front of the room, his mouth dropping open slightly at the sight of another teen entering the room. Clothed in a black gakuran edged in Konoha's signature red, was a tall, slim boy, with porcelain white skin and greatly contrasting hair and eyes. Black locks framed delicate features, although the gaze in his eyes was anything but delicate. A black backpack was slung casually from his right shoulder, and a red and white _uchiwa_ shaped pendant hung from a sleek silver chain on his wrist.

_It should be illegal for a guy to look that pretty,_ Naruto thought idly, mind still fogged with awe.

"… and this, class, is our new student…" Ebisu glanced curiously at the silent boy, expecting him to finish off the sentence. Slate grey eyes remained emotionless. Scowling , Ebisu finished, "Uchiha Sasuke." Bowing curtly to the class, he waited for Ebisu to show him his seat before sitting down next to Shikamaru. Naruto found his last name and the fan shaped charm vaguely familiar, but at the moment, nothing clicked.

"Now, class, today we'll be studying chapter six in the textbook, so please turn to page 346 and get out your notes. Now, who can explain Problem…" Ebisu turned to the white board, voice fading into the background. Naruto faintly realized that he was still ogling the boy, but paid no mind to the thought until dark eyes locked with his own a split second before a wad of paper hit him in the face. Sputtering, he quickly grabbed a textbook and hid his reddened face behind it as Ebisu frowned and turned in his direction. Discreetly straightening the piece of paper, his temper only flared as he stared at the writing on the sheet.

"_Take a picture. It'll last longer - __**dobe**__."_

The bold hiragana that made up the last word enraged him. Any admiration for the boy had almost all but vanished. Crushing the piece of paper in his fist, he glared at the writer, who didn't even look in his direction. Scowling at the lack of notice, he suddenly registered Ebisu yelling at him.

"Naruto!"

Gulping, he looked at his teacher. "H-Hai, sensei?"

"Seeing as how you think you're smart enough to not pay attention in class, why don't you come up to the board and show us how to solve this problem?"

Shakily standing up and accepting the pen, Naruto groaned silently as he stared at the complex function.

This day just wasn't turning out to be one of his better ones.

_TBC._

* * *

A/N: So... I really should get to work on the drabbles, but I've been busy with school, and this plot bunny has been eating my brain. Updates on this will be sporadic, or whenever the bunny chews on the right nerve to get me to write. If you're lucky, my happy-go-lucky classmates will continually poke me to finish this - they're all vying for angst and action. 

Oh, and if you're wondering what "gakuran" are, they're the black military-like uniforms that boys in Japan wear to school, like those in Battle Royale. The girls are wearing the sailor dress uniforms - go look both up on Wikipedia if you need a visual under "Japanese School Uniform". And if you don't already know, an "uchiwa" is a ceremonial fan.

Thanks for reading, leave a review?


	2. Lunchtime isn't Fun Time

A/N: Okay. I have no (good) excuse for the delay in updates. Like many other writers, school attacked, and then writers' block did. A very good one two punch, maybe, but it spells disaster for fanfics. Fortunately, I got a chance to plan out and plot where this is going, so I actually know what I'm doing with this story now, and hopefully updates will be a bit more frequent. Sporadic they will stay, but at least it'll be a little more often. -kicks writers block-

Warnings and disclaimer in the first chapter. And if Konoha's search team misses a ten kilometer explosion, there'll be roars of frustration around the world.

This chapter focuses a bit more on some of the team, and though mentioned, Sasuke makes no appearance. Yet. My apologies for a rather low quality chapter.

Now, on with the fic.

* * *

**Just for Kicks **

* * *

Chapter Two: Lunchtime isn't Fun Time

"That _asshole!_" Naruto hissed, slamming his lunch tray down next to Sakura's. The pink-haired girl scowled as soup sloshed like a tidal wave out of the bowl, splashing onto her bento box.

"Watch it, Naruto!"

"What's wrong, Naruto? You're not normally the easiest guy to piss off –" Ino started, absently sucking on some Pocky.

"Oi, Naruto! Did you see the new pretty boy –" Abruptly cutting off Ino, Inuzuka Kiba suddenly stopped, dodging a wildly thrown punch from the blonde. The tanned boy with short brown hair ducked beneath another blow, hurriedly holding his arms closer to his abdomen as though wounded. "_Not the stomach! Whatever you do, NOT THE STOMACH!"_

"_Don't – mention – that – bastard – to – ME!"_ Naruto's red face and flaming sky blue eyes sent Kiba scurrying under the table for cover. Huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf of legend, Naruto leaned on the table, palms sticky with sweat as claw-like fingers began to gouge holes in the top of the table.

" – I stand corrected," Ino groaned. Sakura closed her eyes, exasperated, and nodded in agreement. Suddenly recalling that a boy was under the table, Ino hurriedly tugged on the end of her black and red skirt of her uniform, poking Sakura to remind her. Poking her blond head of hair under the table, she indignantly warned the bewildered dog lover, "Don't you _dare _take a peek, do you hear me?!"

"It's not like you'd have much of a good view anyways, ne, _Noi-chan?"_

Ino exploded at the sound of her childhood pet name.

"_Ero-baka! An idiot _and _a pervert! How dare you?! _I don't know how Hana can stand you, honestly! I should –"

"Anou, Kiba-kun," Sakura began, cocking her head in curiosity. "You normally wouldn't miss a chance to have an all-out brawl with Naruto. Why'd you tell him 'not the stomach'?"

Grinning sheepishly, Kiba scratched the back of his head.

"Well… come closer. I don't want to get the five of us in trouble."

"The five of us?" Sakura, Naruto, and Ino, in spite of her fury, leaned in. "There's only four people here – oh!"

Quickly putting a finger on Sakura's lips to stop the shocked cry, Kiba had unzipped the oddly baggy uniform jacket halfway down. And sticking out of the jacket was the snout of a long-haired, white dog with chocolate ears.

"Oi, Kiba, are you nuts?!" Smiling at the sight of the dog, Naruto carefully reached a hand under to pet the dog. "Long time no see, Akamaru!"

Flashing them a bright doggy-grin, Akamaru whined happily as he butted his fluffy head into Naruto's hand.

"Aw, kawaii!" Ino and Sakura squealed at the same time. Kiba's eyes looked around cautiously.

"Keep it down, you two, I really don't want to get anyone in trouble here," he muttered.

"What do you guys think you're doing?" came a deep, quiet voice.

Kiba squawked and scrambled to his feet, forgetting that he was under a table and effectively colliding with it in an impressive crash. "_Shino!_ Give me some warning before you do that, would you? Damn, last time you tried that I completely knocked Hinata's bookshelf clear off its wall frame…"

Aburame Shino raised an eyebrow, piercing the Inuzuka from where he stood next to Naruto, nodding in greeting to the others. "Naruto-san, Ino-san, Sakura-san. And unless I'm mistaken, _Kiba-kun_, isn't that when I walked in on you sneaking into one of the Hyuuga's rooms, trying to steal Hinata's lingerie?"

"_What?!"_ Kiba squawked yet again as the looming figure of Hayabusa Tenten appeared up from behind Shino. "Did I just hear that you were trying to steal Hinata-chan's _panties?_"

"Anou – anou – hold on a second, please, Tenten-sempai!" Diving under the table yet again, Kiba cowered below his alternatively amused and enraged audience.

Snarling, the sixteen year old upperclassmen discreetly looked around for lunchtime supervisors before diving under the table with a mighty war cry.

"You _never, ever _try something like that with Hinata-chan! _Do you hear me?_ She's like my sister!"

Loud shrieks and indignant shouts were heard under the table as Tenten started to maul her teammate.

"A – anou, Tenten-sempai is a lot more fiery than she usually is, ne?" Naruto stammered, laughing nervously and wincing when Kiba produced another earsplitting howl. A trickle of sweat slid slowly down his temple. "She's normally pretty level-headed…"

Sakura seemed unsurprised, even encouraging Tenten with approving looks and furious glares sent Kiba's way. "When it comes to the Hyuugas, Tenten-sempai does get rather protective. And besides, _he tried to get Hinata's lingerie."_

Naruto winced. _Talk about a no-mercy policy for perverts…_

"You know, if I were you, I'd be a lot more worried about the teacher headed our way, behind us," Shino quietly admonished.

Blinking in shock, Naruto squeaked out, "Who is it? We can't afford to get into trouble today!"

Shino shrugged. "It shouldn't be much of a problem. It's only Hokage-sama."

At that, every single one of them froze, the ominous words echoing in the silence.

_"…only Hokage-sama…only Hokage-sama…only Hokage-sama…"_

"_Shit!_"

TBC

* * *

A/N: I made Tenten's last name Hayabusa because it means peregrine falcon in Japanese, a bird of prey that attacks quickly and lethally, which reminded me of Tenten and her skill with weapons. 

Well, that's that. Reviews?


End file.
